JakeSki09

JakeSki09

Originally uploaded by pyramidsroad

This is my son Jake racing in Canada. He came in 7th among several hundred racers. The race started in Ottowa and was over 50 K.

CAC 23 Things Week 3

This week was about podcasts and video, but I’m still fooling around with wikis. I managed to get my Wetpaint wiki started, but I don’t really have any content in mind or idea of what to do with it. I’m just messing around and talking to myself in writing. 

I did go to the travel section of our Black Board Class Wiki and post an article about Ethiopia. I learned that I couldn’t just copy and paste a word doc with embedded photos. First the text had to be posted and then the pictures uploaded. So, it did not come out with the nice style of my Nile Notes newsletter. In the future, I’ll save a text Nile Notes as well as one with enbedded photos.

CAC Week 2, Thing 18

I’ve been fooling around with the Wetpaint Wiki through Vt’s 23 Things. I’ve made a page and a personal profile – but have to say, I don’t have the gist of it. I can’t figure out how to just post a comment. In an effort to do that, I’ve created a new page (when we did wikis in the last round), and just a while ago started a new thread in the restaurant reviews. How to just post to an already existing list?

The wiki seems like a mysterious artifact – not easily leading one into its inner workings. I can look at a developed one and have a general sense of what’s going on, but a blank one – in my name, no less – is rather intimidating. Perhaps I need to go see Cheryl for some counseling.

Unfortunately, the Internet connection at home slowed down to almost zero when i tried to work earlier today.

Week 1 Thing 3, Second time around

I’ve joined the Cairo American College 23 Things and have a blog on the schools blackboard site. Let’s see if I can put the link here and link the blogs.

http://nesa.blackboard.net/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_18637_1

Once again, I’ve managed to copy and paste it in. I’ve tried the link function but don’t know where it went – and haven’t managed to make the link above active. What’s different about the process in this blog?

Week 8 Thing 16

I’ve just spent time reading some of the perspectives on Libraries 2.0 and found several articles interesting. Rick Anderson’s “Away from the icebergs” used a clever image to suggest some changes to library thinking. Collection building for a just in case collection is definitely on the decline. At Cairo American College we have a wonderful HS reference collection – and it is rarely used. There is a continuing shift to electronic resources.

His next point about user education made me gulp – probably because I’m a MS HS librarian who does lots of teaching. Introducing kids to the library, library catalog, databases, and other library resources seems like a no-brainer to me. It sure seems to help kids become more confident finders and users of resources. Perhaps instruction and help services are more important at the MS and HS level than the college level where Rick Anderson works.

And finally, his last point – the come to us model of service. Participating in the 23 Things has certainly given me insights into the concept of taking services to patrons where they are. And I agree it is very necessary. I also come from Vermont where libraries serve important funtions in small towns – places that draw people in, create social spaces, and maintain community. Married to an architect, I’ve come to understand the power of the built environment in enhancing community life – so, I think it’s cool to swarm into this wonderful new web world, but hopefully not totally give up libraries and community in the corporeal world.

The Chip Nilges piece contained a lot of jargon and acronemes. But I got the gist of it. OCLC is doing what it should be doing – and is in the forefront of  using web 2.0.

The last article I read was the Stephens piece. That kind of library writing makes me rebelious and annoyed. It is a written harrange, an overwhelming, finger shaking lecture fulls of “shoulds.”  I feel insulted. Better just retire and fade into the dusty old book shelf leaving the library world to smarty pants guys like Michael Stephens.

Week 8 Thing 15

Monday after school and my buddy, Ann, and I have revisited Week 8 and spent some time cruising around Technorati. Once again, I’m in “Wow” mode. There is so much of everything! We looked at the front page: news with it’s mainstream media and blog news. Then we checked out Rising posts and some of the photos. It was interesting that the photo selection changed while I was at the site. Ya gotta be fast!

I checked out the 100 Top Blogs. The Huffington Post was at the top of the list. Interesting as I’d just read a long profile of Arianna Huffington in an old New Yorker magazine a couple weeks ago. I looked at Boing Boing which claimed to be the most popular blog.

Ann and I took a little detour and tried to understand what “authority” means. Some times looking at help screens and FAQs only deepens the confusion. There is so much new vocabulary that is unintelligible – it feels a little like trying to understand a foreign language.

We searched for both my kids’ blogs, but did not find them. Jake races bicycles and he did appear in a YouTube video although not his own blog. Liz writes the Bolton Valley Nordic blog but it didn’t come up. Once again there was a YouTube video. We both search our own blogs. No show. 

Lastly we read a little about pings and registering a blog. OK, maybe we’ll register.

Week 9 Thing 18

OK. We are back from Christmas Holiday and working on some more 23 Things in Cairo. Ann and I spent an hour yesterday looking at wiki stuff. We looked at PBWiki and I added my blog to Favorite Blogs. Strangely it come into the site above the heading Favorite Blogs and in very large type. Today we were back there for Ann to add her blog. We copied and pasted mine into its proper place below the heading – but still in large print. I’m speaking loudly in print, I guess.

Today we looked at Wetpaint and Mediawiki. Thank you for setting them up in similar formats!! It certainly helps me. At Wetpaint we worked together to add a post about the book our book group will read this month in Cairo. We looked at Droplets and Site To- Do List (overwhelming for me) and were mystified by the Easy edit button. It gave us a word processing toolbar but we couldn’t find a place to add text?? I’m sure it was a paper bag, but we couldn’t fight our way out of it.

We looked at favorite vacation spots. I’d just written a little piece about my Christmas in Vermont that I’d sent out to my family and friends – with photos embedded (a new skill!). I made a new page under Favorite Vacations and copied and pasted my Christmas piece into it. Unfortunately, the pictures did not come into the page with the text. I’m not sure yet how to make that happen.

It is fun to be back working at this even though much of it is baffling to me.

Catching up: What’s still to be done

Ann made this list of things she (and me) need to go back and finish. Cool that I could just copy and paste in the blog. There are a couple more things to add on the end including Week 10, Thing 19 and Week 11, Things 22 and 23.

Checklist of Ann’s Progress Through Vermont’s 23 Things

 

Wk	Item #	Item	What needs to be done
3	5	Explore Flickr	Spend more time in Flickr to understand how it works
3	6	Discover some Flickr mashups & 3rd party sites	Learn more about this aspect of Flickr
4	9	Locate library related blogs and/or news feeds	Find at least two library blogs that I will want to visit regularly
5	10	Explore Social Networks	Maybe I’ve done enough of this, but look to be sure
7	12	Play around with an online image generator	Do more of this
7	13	Catalog some of your favorite bks on LibraryThing	Do this from home
8	14	Learn about tagging and discover Del.icio.us	Spend more time in delicious and figure out how it works
8	15	Explore Technorati	Go to this site!
8	16	Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0	Read what is suggested here
9	17	NYT article	Read about Middlebury’s reaction to wikipedia
9	17	Book Lovers Wiki	Visit this site by Princeton Public Library
9	18	Create a wiki or add to VT’s 23 Things sandbox wiki	Do this “thing”

 

Week 11: Video & Podcasts

Last week Ann and I spent a Saturday afternoon exploring YouTube. We watched a bunch of funny, entertaining library pieces. I loved Conan the Barbarian and The Betty Glover Library Workout Tape. They were a hoot and we both said we’d use Conan to introduce the Dewey System – maybe not to talk about overdues!  It was sooo easy to coast from one little cute thing to another…The Harper College library, Columbus Public Library, Library Dominoes, and Library Girl. We hit on a few duds like The Whitehall Library Story Time, too amaturish and plotless. 

The videos are very addictive and fun. I can totally understand why kids (nah, everyone) just loves them.

One issue raised by these videos is student access. Cairo American College, including the library, has a policy of restricting kids from using YouTube on school computers. The reason given is that it takes up too much bandwidth. So, as a librarian, I’m constantly asking kids to log out of YouTube. Seems like Internet video might be an important communication tool – and we are definitely discouraging kids from using it at school. Hummm……

Catching up: Week 10, Thing 20 – Awards

Web 2.0 Awards. The awards list was great . I started out looking at Niche Social Networking and checked out MothersClick. I wished it had been around when I was a young mother and feeling alone and rather isolated. The wiki had half a dozen cool features; for example, a way to connect with other mothers in your town and another to locate kid-friendly activities in ones area.  There’s a forum for parenting questions like potty training and organic baby food. The site is appealing and very useful. I’d also heard the expression “Mommy bloggers” on TV and low and behold, mommy bloggers are featured on the wiki.

 

Next I looked at a couple of the Food award winners. Ann and I watched a video demo on how to roast a red pepper. It was interesting but seemed a little slow. I guess if i wanted to see see how to do some trick cooking or baking process, it might be useful. I checked out “groups” and found Easy College Meals and FireGood for cooking over wood fire.

 

The site I really loved under Food was urbanspoon. What a great way to locate restaurants – either at home or when traveling – and way more possibilities than any guide books can contain. I checked to see what’s new in Burlington to try while we’re at home over Christmas.

 

Meanwhile, Ann investigated a few other sites and I peered over her shoulder from time to time. It was clear that one could spend hours and hours investigating these wikis. There are some really neat ones.